The present invention relates generally to the field of e-commerce, and more particularly to automated merchandising based on social media chatter.
The Internet may be used to facilitate the sale and purchase of goods and services. As the Internet has continued to expand, a robust electronic marketplace, known as electronic commerce (i.e., e-commerce), has developed, where buyers can find and purchase most anything that is available by sellers. E-commerce may be understood as the trading or facilitation of trading of goods or services through a computer network, such as the Internet. More specifically, e-commerce may draw on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Typically e-commerce may employ the World Wide Web for at least one part of a transaction's life cycle, although other technologies, such as e-mail, may also be used. For example, online shopping (i.e., electronic retail (“e-tail”) or e-shopping) is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet through the use of a web browser.
Whether in a physical retail store or via the Internet, the use of merchandising may be employed. Merchandising may generally be understood as any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising may refer to a variety of products available for sale and the display of the products in such a way that it stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase. For example, visual display merchandising may be employed to stimulate consumers to increase spending based on a product design, selection, packaging, pricing, and display. Visual display merchandising may further include disciplines and discounting, presentation of products and displays, and decisions regarding which products should be presented to a particular customer at a given time.